Carl Vogel (cartographer)

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Carl Vogel (around 1892)

Carl Vogel , also Karl Vogel (born May 4, 1828 in Hersfeld , † July 16, 1897 in Gotha ) was a German topographer and cartographer .

Life

Training and first work experience

Vogel was the son of a craftsman. He decided early on to become a surveyor because he had a great talent for drawing. He attended the higher trade school in Kassel and expanded his knowledge with the help of mathematical and geodetic textbooks. After passing the final exam, he joined the Hessian topographical survey in Kassel in April 1846 as a technical assistant .

As an employee of the topographer Johann August Kaupert , who was only a few years older , Vogel helped with the measuring table recordings and participated in the processing of the large topographical atlas of the Electorate of Hesse, which appeared from 1840 to 1858 in 40 sheets with a scale of 1: 50,000. Vogel was opponent of the unconstitutional ordinances of the reactionary Hassenpflug Ministry and was dismissed from the state service of the Electorate of Hesse in the fall of 1850. Since he was given good recommendations due to his cartographic skills, he was given a new position in neighboring Thuringia after a short time. Duke Ernst von Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha planned the publication of a work on the Schleswig-Holstein campaign from 1848 to 1851 and commissioned him to design a series of maps and plans of the landscapes and places involved in this war. During this work, which, however, remained unfinished and unprinted, he came into contact with the Justus Perthes publishing house in Gotha, whose geographical institution was expanded considerably and qualified staff were therefore sought.

Employee of the Justus Perthes publishing house

At the beginning of February 1853, Vogel was employed as a permanent employee of the publishing house, to which he belonged for 44 years without interruption until his death. He was able to work there with a number of well-known cartographers such as August Petermann , Emil von Sydow and Hermann Berghaus , from whom he received numerous suggestions. Above all, he worked on keeping the three important map works of the Perthes'schen Verlag, founded by Adolf Stieler , who died in 1836, up to date through constant improvements, corrections and additions based on detailed study of the newly published geographic, cartographic and travel literature. The first was the Small School Atlas , which had been distributed in very large editions since 1821, covering all parts of the world . The second was the Small Atlas of the German Federal States , the individual maps of which were added after the copies of the school atlas sold in different parts of Germany . It was first published in three sections from 1834 to 1838. The third and best known was the Handatlas covering all parts of the world , the first edition of which was published from 1817 to 1823. Vogel worked on improving it for four decades. The fourth edition, the first in which he participated, appeared from 1862 to 1864, the fifth from 1866 to 1868, each with 84 cards. The sheet of South-West Germany and Switzerland he produced can be regarded as the first modern atlas map. In later editions there were also the four-sheet maps of the Spanish peninsula (1870–72), France (1874–77), and the Germans, which were masterfully engraved in copper by W. Weiler, who died in 1895 and recognized scientifically and technically Empire (1879–81), Austria-Hungary (1881–85), Italy (1887–88) and the Balkan Peninsula (1890–91) based on Vogel's design by B. Domann, as well as the single-sheet map of Denmark on the same scale (1886) so that 26 out of 100 cards in the work bore Vogel's name.

The Thuringian Forest: Eisenach, Wilhelmsthal, Ruhla, Wartberg, Hörselberg, Wutha, Wachstein, Drachenstein: Sheet I on a scale of 1: 60,000 (1867)

Vogel also created a series of individual cards that were also published by Justus Perthes. Of the early works, five special maps of much-visited destinations in the Thuringian Forest , including the area of Eisenach , Bad Liebenstein , Friedrichroda , Tambach and Oberhof on a scale of 1: 60,000, which were published between 1859 and 1866, should be mentioned. From 1864 to 1866 a large topographic map of the Thuringian Forest and its foreland on a scale of 1: 150,000 was published in four sections with an accompanying text on the history of the cartography of the Thuringian Forest Mountains. A map of Paris and the surrounding area on a scale of 1: 150,000 to illustrate the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War appeared in 1871 with an accompanying word, and in the same year a map of Portugal before and after the new land survey on a scale of 1: 1,500,000. In the later years he worked on the revision of the map of Germany, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Kingdom of Belgium and Switzerland with neighboring countries with 25 sheets drawn by Adolf Stieler between 1826 and 1836 , of which he published a revised edition in 1876 made appear. In 1878 he visited the world exhibition in Paris on behalf of his publisher , an experience that deeply impressed him.

One of his main works was the map of the German Reich , not to be confused with the map of the German Reich , the map series from 1909. After six years of arduous preparation, the drawing began with the help of several young assistants, and after a further six years the engraving, which was carried out after various samples and obtaining expert judgments has been completed within five years. The work was completed in 1893. The scale chosen was 1: 500,000, so that, excluding the neighboring countries, there were a total of 27 sections. The map appeared in two editions as a political and a topographical map . It met with great approval in specialist circles at home and abroad and was at that time an outstanding work of German card technology. It is also the basis of the geological map of the German Empire published by the same publisher from 1894 to 1897 on a scale of 1: 500,000 in 27 sections, which Richard Lepsius edited.

Vogel was also the author of smaller essays that appeared almost exclusively in Petermann's Geographische Mitteilungen . For the magazine he wrote regular reports on the newly published sheets of Stieler's Handatlas, but also self-reports of his four-sheet maps. He also wrote critical reviews of maps by other authors. He rarely contributed to other journals such as the yearbooks for the German army and navy .

In the autumn of 1890 Vogel suffered a minor stroke that forced him to cut back on his activities. In 1893 he had a second stronger one, and on July 16, 1897, after a third attack, he died at the age of 69 in Gotha. His written estate is in the Gotha Research Library .

honors and awards

At the 3rd International Congress of Geographers in Venice in 1881 , Vogel was awarded the great medal for his achievements. On the occasion of the centenary of the Geographic Institute, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Ducal Saxon House Order in 1885 . In 1891 he was awarded by the Faculty of Philosophy University of Marburg , the honorary doctorate . Numerous geographic societies named Carl Vogel their corresponding or honorary member.

Publications (selection)

  • Saxony, Thuringia and neighboring countries. Gotha 1860.
  • North-Eastern Germany. Gotha 1861.
  • South-western Germany and Switzerland. Gotha 1865.
  • Topographic map of the Thuringian Forest and its foreland. Gotha 1866.
  • Germany and neighboring countries. To the overview of the railways and steamboats. Gotha 1868.
  • Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Gotha 1872.
  • Spain and Portugal. Spanish peninsula. Gotha 1874.
  • The German empire. The German Empire in 4 sheets. Gotha 1881.
  • Denmark and its neighboring countries. Gotha 1890.
  • Balkan Peninsula. Gotha 1891.
  • Map of the German Empire on a scale of 1: 500,000. 27 sheets in copper engraving. Gotha 1893.
  • Map of Eisenach, Bad Liebenstein and the surrounding area. Gotha 1895.

literature

Web links

Commons : Carl Vogel  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Carl Vogel  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Vogel, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vogel, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German topographer and cartographer
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Hersfeld
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 1897
Place of death Gotha